San Francisco, Calif. -- At the San Francisco State Invitational, the Academy of Art University women's cross country team captured 11th place overall while the men's team could only finish four runners as many are dealing with injures. Sophomore Denisse Correa led the women's team with a 52nd place performance in the meet held at Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park.

Correa completed the 6k course in a time of 24:27.4 and behind her was junior Irinel Zamfir who crossed the line in 67th slot with a time of 25:03.9. The 75th place was awarded to freshman Stacey Toth sporting a time of 26:05.1 and junior Monica Anguiano came in 85th with a time of 28:01.2. The fifth Urban Knight to place was junior Miranda Wiley in the 98th slot (33:30.01).

The AAU women's squad would finish 11th out of the 16 competing teams with 377 points and a total combined time of 2:17:07.7. The Knights bested Division I University of Pacific, Cal State Monterey Bay, PacWest Conference opponent Notre Dame de Namur University, in addition to the Cal Pac Conference's Pacific Union College and Menlo College. Overall, the race was won by University of Alaska Anchorage with Ruth Keino capturing first place individually.

Although the Academy of Art men's team did not have five runners for the team score, sophomore Daveson Marindich took 6th place overall with a time of 25:31.8 which was 13 seconds better than last year. Sophomore Simon Mutai finished the 8k course in 27:10.4 which earned him the 50th spot. Behind Marindich and Mutai, sophomore Mark Bretan crossed the line in 69th place (27:46.3) with a three second improvement and sophomore Kennedy Kurgat completed the course in 70th overall (27:47.1). Injuries to junior Geoffrey Cheruiyot (pink eye) as well as sophomores Amos Maru (shin) and Shawn Daut (quad) kept them out of action.

The Academy of Art University women's team next heads to Baylands Regional Park in Sunnyvale, CA for the Bronco Invitational on Oct. 17. The meet will be hosted by Santa Clara University and is set to begin at 9:00 AM. The men's team will be off until the Pacific West Conference Championships back at Golden Gate Park on Oct. 31.